Taoiseach Bertie Ahern met with representatives of the unionist
paramilitary UVF on Wednesday, while his Foreign Affairs
Minister Brian Cowen visited the UDA controlled Taughmonagh
district of south Belfast.

The true extent of paedophilia in the Catholic Church in Ireland
has emerged for the first time following the publication of a
state inquiry into the sexual abuse of young boys and girls in
County Wexford.

The main conclusion for northern nationalists arising from the
recent debate sparked by Fr Reid’s Nazi/unionist comparison is
unionist denial about their role and responsibility for creating
the conditions which led to almost 30 years of war.

Relatives of those killed in the McGurk’s bar bombing in Belfast
are to meet families of those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan
explosions after a possible link has emerged with those
suspected of being involved in both bombings.

The US State Department has denied Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness
the ability to fundraise while in the country. Sinn Féin
supporters in the US have been asked to send letters, e-mails,
and call officials to reverse the policy.

A major row has broken out over policing reform in the North of
Ireland, with members of the North’s unionist-dominated Policing
Board expressing fears over plans to enhance Community
Restorative Justice (CRJ) schemes.

Baroness May Blood and others are correct in one sense. It’s a
reasonable assumption to make, after both President McAleese and
Fr Alex Reid compared unionist domination to the Nazis, that
this is a sub-conscious psychological thread in the minds of
many Northern Catholics.

At last week’s Downing Street meeting between Taoiseach Bertie
Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Irish
government was adamant about adding a new part to the wider
peace process agenda, post-IRA decommissioning.

Nationalists did an odd thing in 1998: they turned their back on a core
element of nationalist belief. Until that point, nationalists had
argued that Ireland’s affairs and the shape of Irish political life
should be a matter for the people of Ireland to decide.